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Cyrtanthus ventricosus
Also called Post Firelily
Cyrtanthus ventricosus, commonly called fire lily, is a small deciduous, bulbous plant reaching a height of 100–250 mm (3.9–9.8 in). It is in the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae, and is found along the Cape Fold Mountains from the Cape Peninsula, Western Cape, to the Kouga Mountains, Eastern Cape in South Africa.
The fire lily produces salmon to scarlet blooms just nine days after fire occurs at the place where the plant stands.
This plant flowers after wildfires. The red flowers are clearly visible against the blackened background to butterflies and sunbirds, the main pollinators of this species. They are attracted by the nectar that the flowers produce. Sunbirds sometimes pierce the base of the tube, resulting in them getting the nectar rewards without transferring the pollen between plants. This species has full self-sterility, meaning self-pollinated flowers do not produce seeds.
Scarborough Lily · Drakensberg Firelily · Giant Firelily · Vascular Plants
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cyrtanthus ventricosus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
